Playing card



June 4, 1929. Q A. B. HURLEY 1,7l5,759

' I PLAYING CARD Filed July 15, 1925 gwomtoa an my Patented June 4, 1929. l I

UNITED STATES 1,715,759 PATENT OFFICE.

ALBERT B. HURLEY, OF NEW YORK N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO NATIONAL PAPER PROCESS COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.,

A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

PLAYING CARD.

Application filed July 15, 1925. Serial No. 43,879.

My invention relates to methods of imposing symbols or marks upon background surfaces, and specifically the application of such methods to playing cards. This applicatlon is a continuation in part of my prior copending application, filed August 18, 1924, Serial No. 732,775, which has become Patent No. 1,659,734, granted February 21, 1928, and constitutes also a continuation in part of my prior copending application, filed May 9, 1923, Serial No. 637,870. In the former case I have employed a color filter applied to the background surface, in the form of a grid or pattern adapted to absorb certain of the light rays but to permit the reflection of a fixed percentage of uniformly distributed white light, whereby the optical effect of a white background is produced, without glare or injurious effect upon the eyes. In the latter case, I used a flat tint instead of'a color filter, and in both cases I imposed the symbols or markings directly upon the color filter or tint, without any special line of demarcation between them.

I have discovered that with the modified backgrounds I have been using, it is possible to accentuate or throw out the spots or markings, by producing a slight border or line of demarcation around each spot, so as to give the effect of a high light contrast. This serves at once to throw out the spots and to throw back the background.

My invention is illustrated in one form in the accompanyin drawings, which however are approximations only, as a correct representation of the shadings and color efiects cannot be given in black and white lines. In this drawing, Fig. l is a face view of a playing card made according to the invention of my prior application Serial No. 732,775 above referred to and with the present invention applied thereto.

Fig. 2 is a similar face view of a playing card having the tinted back round of my prior application Serial No. 637,870 and with the present invention also applied thereto.

In Fig. 1 is shown the face of a playing card bearing five spots and two indexes. The background. that is to say, all of the surface around and between the spots, is covered with a color screen or filter in the form of a grid or mosaic, adapted to uniformly absorb a portion of the rays of light to produce a uniformly distributed tint or shading with enclosed and uniformly distributed white portions, the total area of said grid lines and the total area of the white portions being to each other approximately as three to one, and the grid being of a fineness between 80 and 100 mesh per inch. WVhere the grid lines are black, however, these proportions may be varied. It is not desirable to have the background assume a decidedly gray tint, and as the proportions above mentioned for the grid and the white enclosed faces Were determined with respect to a color screen of light bluish green, and as black instead of absorbing a portion only of the light rays absorbs all of them, the black linesmust be made much finer with respect to the enclosed white spaces, and the mesh may also be varied as found necessary. Except for the use of black lines, which represents merely the limit of absorption by the grid this much of the invention is the same as that described in the former application Serial No. 732,775.

It will be observed however that around each of the spots there is a border 2 left uncovered by the grid, or as an equivalent having a deposit of White pigment upon it, so as to produce a strong white background or coronal efiect around the edges of each spot. Thus, while the greater part of the background surface is covered and protected by the light filter, so that glare is prevented, yet the contrast around the edges of the spots is the same as it would have been if the entire background had been left unmodified, minus the glare. I find that this elimination of the glare, makes the background effect so much more conspicuous that even though the white light be made very narrow the object of the invention is fully attained, and a very strong optical effect is produced.

Referring to Fig. 2, I have shown therein a card with a background 3 bearing a fiat or uniform tint, the color of which for the purposes of the present invention is not essential, the main point being the effect produced by the combination of this flat background with the high light or corona effect around the spots. This space 2 around each spot is left untinted or is provided with white pigment so as to make the same sharp contrast as in Fig. 1. I find by experimental demonstration that the same effect is produced, of throwing back the background and throwing up the spots, without any strain on the eye.

It is obvious that this same method of accentuating the spots or markings on the backroundcan be adapted to backs as well as aces of playing cards, and to other markings as well. According to my present knowledge, Fig. 1 represents the preferred form of the invention, because by properly designing and applying the screen or grid on the background, thfi'eifect of a White card can be produced with concentrated high light around the dark bodies of the spots.

While I have described herein a white background surface with a color filter or light absorbing medium applied to it, and a border or margin around each spot of uncovered white surface or the equivalent produced by pigment, it is nevertheless to be understood that the color of the surface, and thereby the color of said borders or margins may be varied, or the treatment of said borders or margins otherwise may be adapted to produce the refiection of less than a totality of the light that falls upon them. For example, a white card may have a blue-gray color filter imprinted upon it, with blank spaces left for the spots, such blank space having imprinted thereon a paler color filter, and the spots then imprinted in the blank spaces so as to leave borders or margins around them lighter than the back ground surface, but still not entirely white.

All such modifications are within the of my invention.

Having thus described my invention what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A playing card having a background surface with filter or screen thereon adapted to uniformly absorb a portion of the light falling upon it, and enclosing uniformly dis tributed White portions, spots upon said card, said filter or screen being removed to form a border or margin around each spot adapted to reflect all the light rays that fall upon it so as to afford a strong contrast between the spots and the body of the card, Without glare.

2. The method of producing a non-glare playing card which consists in imprinting a light absorbing screen or filter upon the surface of the card, leaving portions of said surface exposed corresponding in position and shape to the symbols to be applied thereto, but slightly larger than said symbols and finally imprinting said symbols Within said blank spaces so as to leave an exposed reflecting surface around each symbol.

In testimony whereof I hereunto affix my signature.

' ALBERT B. HUR'LEY.

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